Strange But True: The Best of 2008

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

As a baseball fan, I love seeing odd events happen during games. Who could forget the night Melky Cabrera hit a ground rule double when the ball hit the pitching rubber and flew into the stands? Or when Orlando Hernandez threw his entire glove to first base?

The oddities of the game are one of its primary attractions.  Even though thousands of games are played each year, there always seems to be a “Wow, I’ve never seen that before” moment in almost every game.

So I present to you some “strange but true” oddities that occurred during the 2008 season. I found these from an article Jayson Stark wrote a few months ago. Here are some of the better one’s:

- The only Padre to steal a base in the entire month of July was that world-famous base bandit, Greg Maddux.

— CC Sabathia tied for the lead in shutouts in BOTH, the American and National, leagues in the same season.

— Matt Holliday reached base six times in one game Apr. 17; however, didn’t score nor drive in a run.

—  In Game Two of the World Series, the Rays became the first team since the 1923 Giants to score two runs on RBI groundouts in a single World Series inning. In Game 3, the Rays became the first team to pull off that very same feat in, oh, about 48 hours.

— Finally, when the Phillies win the World Series, they really do it with mirrors. Just check the calendar—and the closers:

Won in:

‘80 and ‘08

Last out collected by a reliever wearing No.:

45 (Tug McGraw) and 54 (Brad Lidge)

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